Jerry is a 23-year-old undergraduate from the National University of Singapore (NUS). His girlfriend of 2 years finally gave up trying and broke up with him. Citing “He is a block of wood!” as the reason. Project group mates in school often brush off his ideas. “We don’t mean to be rude, but his ideas just didn’t come across as constructive”, says a classmate. He often scores low for his presentations, and his lack of confidence is obvious to all.
The importance of developing effective communication skills cannot be understated. Not only does it enable you to function well in school or the workplace, it also very much affects how well people take to you in your social life. An effective communicator often comes across as more confident, often gets along well with others and often wields more influence.
I believe that developing and equipping myself with such skills is an integral part of my education. We all interact with many people around us throughout the school day, including our classmates and lecturers through many different mediums, such as emails or face-to-face conversations. Whether we like it or not, others form impressions of us through the way we communicate. Every opportunity we get to speak in front of a class functions as a practice session, enabling us to up our confidence and competencies. Speaking and writing well means people can understand our point of view better, leading to higher levels of persuasion. The job interview is probably the ultimate example of how a good communicator can hold an advantage over someone who is not. Of course, being a good communicator is a must for anyone who hopes to be an effective leader.
However, the skill of effective communication isn’t limited to the scope of academic or work excellence. It would be rather pathetic if I took this module purely to do better in future ‘situations’! In fact, communication is a soft skill that enhances one’s life. Very much like how having a driving license gives you much freedom (and not just a skill for you to get a job)! I love to listen to people and understand their viewpoints. I love having meaningful discussions and conversations over a variety of topics. Communicating well also means being able to manage conflict better. Learning how to observe and read non-verbal cues has allowed me to become a more sensitive listener, not to mention a better friend!
There’s just so much to be gained from picking up these skills. In my opinion, be able to communicate well opens up so many windows. So much so that I’m willing to spend 3100 points from the Program Account to bid for this module! =) Lets all make the most out of this module, so as to avoid being Jerrys!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
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8 comments:
Maybe you can decorate your post by adding in some pics, just as what you did in your previous posts ^^ ~
This is an excellent post, Liang Fu. You invite the reader in to your mental world with good use of a series of imagined anecdotes, and then you connect those with the importance of effective com skills. Eventually, you bring all back to you and how you need these skills for your own development. Well done! My only "complaint" is that two or three sentence fragments detract from the overall flow of your language. can you spot those?
Thanks for your effort?
Hi,
I like the way you open up your discussions by using a third person point of view; is a very smart and tactful way to capture a reader.
Im abit curious did you accidentaly typed in an extra zero for the bid points?
Hi Liangfu.
I really like the way you express yourself here,where you are able to capture the reader's attention through a mixture of different styles of writings like using third person account as the opening paragraph, varied examples to support your belief in the importance of effective communication.
Anyway, I really agree to the staement " others form impressions through the way we communicate."
How we communciate with others tell them (especially those who do not really know us) something about ourselves.
Yo Liang Fu! My blogging buddy.. Haha. I like that you started off with a 'real-life' scenario which clearly shows the demise of not having good communication skills. Is great that you have brought this topic to your own personal experience and I totally agree with you that having effective communication skills would allow us to have an advantage over our peers during an interview... (based on my own bad personal experience)..hmm.. Good job! Keep it up!
Hey! Realize I didn't use my username for my previous comment whereas I see everyone using theirs.. Haha. Decided to post another comment using my username this time! Cheeers!! Haha!
Hi! Thanks for the constructive comment.
I agree that face-to-face communication can delivers information/ideas most effectively. This is the channel with most cues. However, there are some situations where avoiding face-to-face communication is better.
For example, some people might prefer to use a text message to initial a breakup. Some people might prefer to send electronic mails to the professor for consultation. These are some situations in which people prefer to use other channels to reduce awkwardness.
However, I agree that in some situations it is better to use face-to-face communication. Some examples are when we are trying to resolve a conflict with a close friend/family member or when we are consoling friends.
I believe to communicate effectively; we need to make use of the different channel present to us. The choice of the channel is of upmost importance :)
Regards
Gwen
I like the part where you said "Whether we like it or not, others form impressions of us through the way we communicate." We always hear about how much 'first-impressions' count, forgetting that subsequent impressions count as well. And these 'subsequent' ones are almost always formed by observations of the way we communicate or present ourselves.
I also like how you tied up the end by reference to the anecdote you started with. It helped to wrap things up very nicely.
PS: yes, John 3:16 =)))
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